And I Knew It Was You
by Imaginationstation196
Summary: "Lies and secrets, they are like a cancer in the soul. They eat away what is good and leave only destruction behind." Or so Darcy had heard. Until she met him.


**Hi Guys! I tried my best to edit this chapter and make as grammatically correct as possible but if I've still left in a few mistakes (typos and such), feel free to PM me. Also ,I haven't written anything in long, long time so if I've also messed up some facts or am scientifically incorrect or inaccurate, just drop it in a review or PM.**

 **Lastly, feel free to suggest any ideas or plot enhancements so I can incorporate them into the fic :D**

 **R &R!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own ANYTHING in this fic (except for the plotline, of course) All rights reserved to Marvel.**

 _Run._

 _Her footsteps hit the ground with determination and fear. She wouldn't get caught, not now, not ever. The heavy steel belt hung loosely on her hips and she hoisted it off and swung it around her neck. The empty corridors echoed with every step she took, the ceilings hung low giving it a tunnel like feel._

 _Run, faster._

 _She reached the end of the room and made a sharp turn to the other end. Her feet slipped against the thin wooden flooring. She looked around wildly for the exit. All doors looked identical to the ash white walls, just barely visible through the dark outlining and bronzed hinges._

 _It looked strangely out of place for a building in a rainforest. She glanced at the watch on her wrist, the straps rotting away and the time unclear on the cracked dial. She didn't have much time. That she was sure of. He would realize she was missing and-_

 _An alarm rang out in the distance and she knew she had to act fast; she reached for the first door and almost pulled the handle, when she saw it._

 _Wires. Small tiny wires looping through the keyhole and carefully wrapping themselves around the knob. She felt a shiver run down her spine._

 _The doors were armed with explosives._

 _She should have known. She had managed to sneak in two keys, one of which was supposed to be the one for the final exit._

 _The alarm stopped ringing which meant that the guards had changed position. She looked at her watch again._

 _Seven minutes, twenty-two seconds._

 _She turned and ran in the opposite direction; the air vents were going to be a wild guess. She had studied the maps and had them imprinted in her mind, two more steps to the left and she'd find the first one. An alarm rang out again and she froze._

 _She had been caught._

 _Of course they would be watching her! She shook her head at her own stupidity and broke into a fast run. The vents were no longer a possible option; she most certainly didn't have enough time now. Her legs ached and sweat poured down her forehead. She had no idea where to go now; she whipped around in the opposite direction as the sound of heavy boots echoed in the empty corridor._

"Darcy."

 _She held her head as a pang of pain shot through and her focus blurred. The boots sounded closer and her legs gave way as she fell onto the cold concrete. She risked another glance at her watch._

 _Six minutes, thirty four seconds._

 _She pushed herself and with renewed energy, started again. She could see the light, just a little more..._

"Darcy!"

 _A large black gloved hand appeared and gripped her shoulders. She cried out and pulled back only to stumble into the sea of black soldiers behind her. She wriggled to break free and brought her leg up to kick them._

 _"Darcy! What the hell!"_

 _She fell again, but this time, through the floor and into the endless sea of space. She cried out again only to see the entire scene being warped and sucked away like a black hole._

"That's it. I'm calling your mom."

Darcy Lewis opened her eyes to see a concerned Jane Foster leaning down. She closed her eyes again and rubbed her forehead. ''Dang...did I hit you?"

"Take a guess." Jane replied amusedly.

Darcy groaned. ''Damn, sorry 'bout that Janie." She opened an eyelid and stared apologetically at her friend.

Jane chuckled. "No worries. Just get up and get dressed. We have a meeting in an hour." She said as she walked out of the room.

Darcy shuffled out of bed. "What's it about again?"

"No idea. It's probably some security debriefing or something." Jane called from the passage.

S.H.I.E.L.D had been really uptight and naggy since HYDRA came into the picture. According to Thor, who according to Jane, said several agents had been dropped off and more were under the line of fire. S.H.I.E.L.D hadn't wanted to be too obvious and used the 'limited resources' excuse to close some major wings.

Darcy wouldn't be too surprised if this ended up to be another retrenchment session.

Jane, Erik, Darcy and a handful of other scientists and doctors, including Dr Banner, were mostly the only ones remaining on board their Intergalactic Science Group (as Darcy liked to call it).

She made her way to the bathroom and entered the shower. She turned the knob to cold and sighed in relief as the cold water soothed her skin. She couldn't understand why she was having such strange dreams.

That was third time this week and her past two dreams hadn't been so different either. Each one of them had been darker and sinister than the last. Darcy thought back to the attack on Manhattan; she had remained completely calm and collected except little pangs of worry for Jane.

Then the time when the Dark Elves decided to take up the empty position on World Dominance and the result was pretty much a Manhattan Part 2. Darcy was more than happy though; Jane got a visit from Thor and Darcy had managed to make a new perky friend, Ian.

It had been over a year since she last heard from him.

She thought back to Erik and how she and Jane had felt so guilty and depressed when he was admitted to the hospital. After about three months, they received a call from one of the doctors telling them that Erik was not mentally ill but suffering from some sort of hypnosis.

S.H.I.E.L.D had done their own research and found traces of the Tesseract's magic in Erik's brain. They'd told them to proceed with caution in case he reverted back to his hysteric state.

Still, none of this explained her strange dreaming process. Maybe the stress of life was catching up to her after all.

Not wanting to dwell on unpleasant thoughts anymore, she exited the shower and quickly changed.

She was drying her hair with a towel when Jane knocked on the door. "Darce, Erik's already left because he has to meet up with few friends before the meeting. Just get dressed and get down for breakfast so we aren't late."

Darcy stopped mid-tug on the sweater. "Wait, doesn't that mean Erik took the car too?"

"Yeah but we're getting a ride."

"From who?"

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Darcy found herself squashed in-between two rather stoic agents as the mini S.H.I.E.L.D van exited their bumpy driveway. She could tell by the look on the faces of some of the agents that they pitied them. And she could understand a bit why they felt that way too, after all, who would've thought that Dr. Jane Foster, highly acclaimed scientist and astrophysicist would live in such shabby conditions?

The van rocked again and Darcy tried her best to maintain balance and try not to knock her head against the agents chin. As if sensing her predicament, the agent next to her gave a nasty glare and shuffled closer to the door.

Talk about loveable.

From the front, she spotted Jane giving her a stern look. Not her too. But Darcy could understand where Jane was coming from. They were BOTH being called in to S.H.I.E.L.D for god-knows what and the last thing Jane needed was trouble from her intern-turned-assistant.

Not like she'd caused any problems.

Ever

She'd desperately tried to make Jane sit next to her by tugging on her sleeve like a toddler, unfortunately for her, the act did not go unnoticed by the other senior agents and one of them had the audacity to crack a joke that left Jane's face flaming scarlet.

Needless to say, she had obliged with whatever they wanted and settled down quietly for the ride. Save the few stern glances she shot Darcy's way every now and then.

Halfway through the journey, Darcy could tell that the agents next to her were just about ready to shoot her.

She'd accidently poked one in the eye when she was whipping out her iPod and earphones. In her defence, the close proximity in which they were seated didn't provide much space for her arms to move gracefully. She apologized almost five times, each time earning her nothing more than an unintelligible grunt from the agent in question.

Almost five minutes later, she accidently yanked her earphones cord right out and Lzzy Hale's raspy voice and questionable lyrics floated through, ruining the quiet environment in the car. She saw Jane giving her any icy glare through the rear-view mirror and immediately held up her hands in surrender.

She was so not doing this on purpose.

She started sneezing not too long afterwards. Her eyes were watering and her nose could've won the title for the next Niagara Falls. Darcy was sure that by the time they reached the HQ, more unpleasant surprises would await her.

And she was right.

* * *

The van stopped outside a deserted airstrip and the agents immediately piled out. Darcy craned her head to see where they when she was nudged impatiently from the side.

"Miss Lewis, we are not here for sightseeing." One of the junior agents addressed her. "Get a move on." He added rudely.

Darcy huffed and jumped out. She was immediately hit with a wave of thick and dusty air, but she relished it anyway. Fresh air was fresh air, better than the claustrophobic van.

"Darcy." Jane called a few steps ahead of her. She turned around and beckoned her assistant over.

"Yes?"

"I need you to scan the ground again; we might have missed something yesterday." Jane handed Darcy a small scanner with small pixel digits. It was very different from usual mineral scanner; not only did it scan for minerals but it also gave an accurate reading of the depth of the ground below.

"Yes boss." Darcy took the scanner and went up a little hill. She looked around and spotted the van driver conversing with another agent not too far off. She tucked her hair behind her ears and bent down.

She gently patted the soil to feel if any of the earth had been dug up. Reassured when she felt the hard ground, she held the scanner in place and slowly moved it around. She held it up for about fifteen minutes before she pressed the small button on the side and the machine began loading its recordings. Darcy waited for it to finish and when the screen displayed: 'Please insert password to see results', she hurried back to Jane and handed it to her.

"Here. I couldn't find anything; maybe we should start looking at a different patch." She shoved her hands in her pockets and rocked back and forth on her heels.

Jane mumbled something and handed the scanner back to her. She was too busy jotting down notes on her tablet to pay proper attention.

"Read these over and tell me if they match the ones we took yesterday." Jane handed her the small device with multiple readings on it.

Darcy took the scanner and studied it; she ran back to the van to get her laptop and popped up the previous stats.

Darcy furrowed her brows as she thought back to the previous readings. She looked again at the readings. She frowned, something wasn't right. She looked up to see Jane mingling with a few agents.

"Jane! You have to see this!" Darcy ran forward in her direction. Jane looked at her in confusion. "What's wrong?" The other agents left and Darcy waved the scanner and readings in her face while her other hand clutched her laptop.

"This just doesn't add up. Look, we took some readings yesterday after almost two months and then today it just looks like someone pulled some cheap stunt last night and we get this."

Jane held her hands up in surrender. "Slow down. Explain from the beginning."

Darcy sighed and leaned against the plane. "Ever since we started recording the ground's depth in order to search for minerals, this is the biggest reduction!" She pointed to the readings. "This here says that we have lost approximately thirty meters in one night. And according to yesterday's readings, we lost a total of four and a half meters in eight weeks!"

Jane frowned. "That's not possible." She leaned over and took the scanner and set down the laptop, her sharp eyes analysing the differences. They'd started scanning after Fury agreed to let them experiment with the Tesseract and see if any minerals fused together with it would react differently.

"That's just- I don't believe it!" Jane shook her head. "Are you sure this thing's not broken." She flipped it over and examined it for any sign of damage.

Darcy shook her head. "It's S.H.I.E.L.D tech; this thing could run for ions and never suffer a scratch or malfunction."

"Maybe there's a sinkhole." Darcy suggested.

Jane snorted. "Yeah right; we checked and made sure that we wouldn't conduct anything in Karst landscapes. And just take a look around; there are no rivers, lakes or ponds of any sort within the next hundred kilometres." She gestured around.

Darcy sighed. "Well, any other possible explanation for this?"

Jane ran a hand through her hair, something she did when she was stressed or worried. "I have no idea."

Darcy kicked at the dirt. To be fair, none of this was actually Jane's fault. But as far as rules went, she would have to take the blame because she had been the one who suggested the idea.

Jane's loud groan bought her out of her thoughts. "How am I going to explain to Director Fury that thirty metres of land just magically vanished overnight?"

Darcy could understand her friend's predicament. They would automatically become suspicious since they had delayed the readings for more than a month. "But what are they gonna do though? Accuse us of hijacking a chunk of earth?" She questioned.

Jane glared at her. "This is not funny. They cordoned off the area with the highest amount of minerals and metals so we could research without anyone else getting involved."

Darcy opened her mouth to respond when an agent came running up to them. "Dr. Foster and Miss Lewis, we're ready to take off."

Jane nodded and looked towards Darcy who was already stuffing her laptop back in its case. She looked up and grabbed Jane's arm. "Let's go. I'm sure whatever the debriefing is about, this will seem insignificant in comparison."

The agent led them up and to their marked seats. Darcy didn't wait for him to announce their place and immediately took up the one next to Jane. No way was she going to spend this ride next to a shoddy agent.

They did this every single day; the duo along with Erik would drive to the airstrip, board a plane and then arrive at HQ half an hour later.

Darcy strapped her seatbelt and leaned back enjoying the plush cushioned seats. The low hum of the engine grew louder and the pilot's voice reciting the routine procedure of flight safety instructions.

She felt the slight pull as the aircraft lifted upwards. Eyes still closed, she focused on the sounds around her; Jane mumbling formulas as she typed in more theories on her tablet, the agents in the back murmuring, the hum of the engines.

She looked out the small window, a mix of sand and leaves swirled against the window. They were much higher than usual. Having an acute fear of heights, she leaned back in her seat, not too keen to see miniature trees and other life forms.

"Erm..Jane..we're too..high." Darcy squeaked, attracting strange looks from the other agents. Jane looked up from her work in confusion. She leaned over Darcy and peered out the window. "Huh? You're right." She typed in some quick altitude calculations. "Wow. We're much higher than usual." She put her tablet away and waved over an agent.

"Dr. Foster, need I remind you that there shall be no unnecessary walking while the aircraft is in flight?" The shaggy brown-haired youth said in annoyance.

Jane appeared somewhat shy to ask him after his words, so Darcy jumped in. "It seems we're much higher than usual, has S.H.I.E.L.D picked a different venue today?" She asked in as much of a business-like tone she could muster.

The agent resisted the urge to smirk. "Yes indeed we have, Miss Lewis. And since your fear of heights is widely known, I suggest you settle down and wait for further instructions." With that he turned on his heel and left.

Darcy's ears flamed. What a loser! He just had to bring up last year's New Year's party. They had all been invited and Jane brought Darcy along for company, but as it turned out, the party was being held at Avengers Tower on the top floor. Not only was Darcy a bundle of nerves at the thought of bumping into Tony Stark, she also (accidently) threw up from the sheer sight of the city below and its spectacular height.

Back in present day, Jane nudged her arm. Darcy glanced at her and could see the slight smile forming on her friends' face. "Yeah I get it. No need to remind me again." She rolled her eyes and settled in for a long ride.


End file.
